Phishing Websites Spoofing Banks to Steal Information: Report

Researchers from US-based cyber security company FireEye have claimed discovering malicious phishing websites created by cyber criminals that spoof 26 Indian banks to steal personal information from customers.

Tesco Bank's website carried a statement from Higgins apologising to customers all day on Monday. (Image: Reuters)

New Delhi: Researchers from US-based cyber security company FireEye have claimed discovering malicious phishing websites created by cyber criminals that spoof 26 Indian banks to steal personal information from customers.

FireEye identified a new domain (csecurepay[.]com) that was registered on October 23 this year and appears to be an online payment gateway but actually is a phishing website that leads to the capturing of customer information from 26 banks operating in the country, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

In this phishing attack, victims are asked to enter their account number, mobile number, email address, one-time password (OTP) and other details. Once the information is collected, the website displays a fake failed login message to the victim.

The phishing site served fake logins from 26 banks, including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, State Bank of India, among others.

This is how it works. When navigating to the URL, the domain appears to be a payment gateway and requests that the user enter their bank account number and the amount to be transferred. The victim is allowed to choose their bank from a list.

In the next step, the malicious website requests the victim to enter their valid 10-digit mobile number and email ID which makes the website appear more legitimate.

"The victim will then be redirected to the spoofed online banking page of the bank they selected and are requested to login," FireEye said.

After entering their login credentials, the victim will key in their OTP and once all the sensitive data is gathered, a fake failed login message such as "Some error occurred. Try after some time" will be displayed to the victim.

"Criminals follow the money and as more Indians embrace online banking, criminals followed them online. As the digital economy grows, consumers should be aware of the risks that accompany the convenience," noted Vishak Raman, Senior Director for India and Saarc at FireEye.

Using the registration details of this domain, FireEye security researchers identified a second domain (nsecurepay[.]com) registered by the same attacker in August 2016 and appeared to be created to steal credit and debit card information, including ICICI, Citibank, Visa and MasterCard and SBI debit card details.

"The ease of online payments opens new avenues for criminals to trick consumers into divulging their own sensitive banking information. The growing sophistication of these cyber criminal campaigns makes them harder for consumers to identify and firewalls and antivirus technology do not stop these attacks," Raman added.

FireEye said it has notified the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which is under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, about the threat.